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Alito denies conflict in Vanguard case

November 11, 2005|By Items compiled from Tribune news services.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said Thursday he was "unduly restrictive" in promising in 1990 to avoid appeals cases involving Vanguard Group and another investment firm and said he has not made any rulings in which he had an obligation to step aside.

In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Alito said a 1990 questionnaire he filled out for the panel covered his plans for "initial service" on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and did not apply to "two isolated cases seven and 13 years later."